behavior

Within Biology/Neurobiology there are two types of behaviour patterns relating to animals- Innate and learned, and within these two are several subcategories, including reflex, conditioning, imprinting, and social behaviour.

• Innate Behaviour: develops independently of the environmental context (i.e. nurture or experience). These behavioural patterns are controlled by genes inherited from parents, and they develop through the process of natural selection. Taxes, kineses, and spinal and cranial reflexes are all examples of innate behaviour patterns.
• Learned Behaviour: reflects the conditions that an animal might experience during development. See conditioning for an informative read. Operant conditioning is also known as trial and error learning, and then there's imprinting, one of my favorites...

Be*hav"ior (?), n.

Manner of behaving, whether good or bad; mode of conducting one's self; conduct; deportment; carriage; -- used also of inanimate objects; as, the behavior of a ship in a storm; the behavior of the magnetic needle.

A gentleman that is very singular in his behavior. Steele.

To be upon one's good behavior, To be put upon one's good behavior, to be in a state of trial, in which something important depends on propriety of conduct. -- During good behavior, while (or so long as) one conducts one's self with integrity and fidelity or with propriety.

Syn. -- Bearing; demeanor; manner. -- Behavior, Conduct. Behavior is the mode in which we have or bear ourselves in the presence of others or toward them; conduct is the mode of our carrying ourselves forward in the concerns of life. Behavior respects our manner of acting in particular cases; conduct refers to the general tenor of our actions. We may say of soldiers, that their conduct had been praiseworthy during the whole campaign, and their behavior admirable in every instance when they met the enemy.

© Webster 1913.